Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140610

Which you are basically not cutting you may be cutting rowth rate but if you project to do 10 and you only do it five, and is a 5 rate. We have to get back to the honest math that Business Owners across the country have to do when they balance the budget and the business. We have to take the same approach. Host debbie from ohio, independent line. Caller good morning, cspan. I cannot believe that president obama is getting away with in our country. Everybody needs to demand his impeachment. We cannot keep up with the scandals, and who knows what is coming down the road next . He is like a whirlwind the tasmanian devil. He needs to be impeached, period. It doesnt matter if he is black, white, purple, republican, democrat. What he is doing is illegally he is destroying our country. Agree inll, i would the sense that i disagree greatly with this president. In the been talking house that you cannot simply run the country by executive order, of cannot ignore the letter the law. This goes back to a concern and something ive talked about a 1 congress. Cle at that point you can use the budget to do with the executive branch. Tose are areas we have continue to look at. I agree that we need to continue to have the programs and oversight in place to keep the executive and check. Host washington, d. C. David, hello. Caller thank you, congressman, for your service. Youre not the first Government Official to say that there is government waste. We are all in kind of agreement on that fact. What are you recommending as a reproach that will be different up get a different result in terms of consolidating some of these agencies . I will take my call offline. Guest david, i appreciate that. Up until this point we are looking at it from the preparations and oversight process. Tiger, weve not had a good handle frankly, we have not had a good handle on it. What is different about this is the panel that would be put together and committee is made up of republicans and democrats, h a look at taking each it taking the appropriation smashers not as a whole but in parts. And then bringing those to the House Committee and if it doesnt act, straight to the house floor, and 10 hours of debate. Were not going anywhere and trying to offer amendments you offer it up or down. If we found 100 billion in we may get that much, whatever it may be, and then you come to the floor and as a representative of your district in this country you have to say or ie with this cut dont agree with this cut. Peopleu go back to the of your district and say that this 50 billion needs to stay in the budget and here is why. On a different path from saying lets take it out of the appropriations process, but it gives us another tool and takes away excuses. The committee would be members of congress or independent . Guest independent. You would have of those appointed by the president and the leadership in the senate and house. Host oxford, pennsylvania. Good morning to bob. Caller good morning, cspan. He is talking about cutting the budget with no amendments or anything. I guess every program has its faults and its waste, but amendments, i would think, would te the thing to cut the fat ou but leave the good thing in any program. V. A. , anybodythe who is still with that, it takes 2 to 3 years once you apply come even if they send you to the Social Security and say you cannot work by the time you hire someone who represents you it is 23 years, and people die or commit suicide in that time and families suffer in that time. Ne more thing about the trade i am sure that some of those guys we traded for are not good characters, but if that was your son came home or any american son that came home, i would love to hear what you would say about it then. Thank you so much, and god bless america. Guest bob, i appreciate that. I will start with your last comment first. Family is pleased that he is coming home . Im sure that they are. Andin a wartime environment a role that is a hostile place, you have to look out for the whole as well, and this sets a for otherrecedent sons and daughters who are in harms way. This is where the administration lacks foresight. I think, fica, going against the principle that we have stood by for many, many years, and looking forward to that. In regards to the amendment process, i think it basically takes it look at the good. I am not a republican who will sit here and tell you that government needs to go away or be paired down to nothing. Im a believer in the constitutional form of government that we have, but it needs to be efficient. She talks about the backlog. One of the most depressing things in my office is when i talk to kids workers who handle a majority of their cases Veterans Administration cases and Social Security cases. When our constituents have to call my office so that they can get an appointment or get the things that are promised to them, that is a problem. That is a concern for many in the sense that when you go back they recordkeeper, the folks working the clinics and hospitals are good nurses and doctors who are trying to do the best, but the admin assertion of the v. A. Has let them down and structurally we have got to change this. From anas one speaking iraq war perspective, i have talked about this before in the sense that we are in a position now where the worst is yet to come. If we dont structurally fixed this now, five or 10 years from now, they will be utilizing the system more and more. We are broke now. Ndaiding this is not what to do. Host any look at the oversight structure on this . Guest yes, chairman miller has done great work on this. Bringing out the real inefficiencies that are there. We should not allow our government to, especially dealing with those who serve our country and fulfill their commitment it is time for the government to step up and fulfill theirs. Sending them to an inefficient system where they have to call their congressmen to get help to me shows a tremendous brick down in the system that should work. Host senator sanders and senator mccain on the senate side have come up with a plan looking at this issue. What do you think of that plan and would you support it . Guest without going into specifics of their plan, looking at Structural Integrity anything that we look at now, from holding accountability of the ministration of the v. A. Also things that we have got to do. Structural change has to take place. Those steps like that are the discussions we need to be having. And we have those discussions we will take care of it in the longterm. Host structural changes meaning . Guest updating appointment systems, systems in which appointments and referrals and Service Members that help. Get help. I have been a cosponsor of the legislation that says you can actually go if you are too far away or they cant get you within a certain amount of time, you can go to a private doctor. Withve got to come up models that fit the system and the problems in the system. The problem is that many times we look at the system and say to just fix it as it is. We have got a think outside the box. What government many times does not do is think outside the box. We think of it in the terms it has always been. It is part of who they are cutting but also the problem in the Veterans Administration. We think about it as it has been. Lets think about it in terms of what it could be. That is the kind of thinking that government needs to have, instead of sibley going by wrote progression from problem to problem to problem. Lets start doing the role of congress, oversight and looking at programs host does any of that involve more money, then . Guest at this point in time you cant continued to feed there may be changes to prioritize i am forgetting our budget i am for getting our budget in order so that we can prioritize. But as long as we have that and debt and deficit, we have problem prioritizing to get things done. It was something we are spending money on posted that is where we have the issue and discussion on money. Distantly spend more money is a mistake. Two sibley spend more money is a mistake. Host good morning. Republican line. Caller thank you for having me under program this morning. I wanted to touch base on cutting wasteful programs and cutting spending. The other thing we should do is bring jobs back to this country. Our jobs report is up but unemployment is still at the same level. We wont touch base on unemployment extensions, funding these programs that are needed socially. It also but also, on top of dontke bva scandal, i understand why anybody needs to wait 90 days to see a doctor. Why cant we just see a regular doctor in the network . If i am sick and i want to see a doctor, i go out and i see a doctor. I dont understand why we need to waste tons of money for this when it is just common sense. If they cant get into a va hospital, send them to a regular hospital. Dont make him wait 90 days, when it comes out to veterans affairs. When it comes to spending, i believe in cutting wasteful spending but i also believe in bringing in jobs like the Keystone Pipeline, boosting our economy, letting our country h guest i agree with the caller a great deal. Lets think outside the box, thats get our veterans help. Theerms of jobs growth, house has passed keystone, we work on energy policy, reforming our job training structure program. These are the kinds of things that where we pass jobs government needs to promote and have the access that allows the market and the jobs to be created. When government interferes with that, we have problems. The other things that can create jobs and infrastructure and make the private sector confident in where we are headed. When we talk about the issue of and unemployment being about the same come it is because a lot of folks have just dropped out of the workplace. Host what about education . The president announced perspectives when it comes to college loans. What do you think . Guest again, it is a situation where you have the president looking at it and saying lets help out those who are underwater. It is a politically popular move to do that. Tentatively the Economic Growth tenets tonight Economic Growth . Can it simulate Economic Growth . Possibly. It comes down to this government and Government Spending and the debt and deficit issues have got to be addressed. We can bandaid, talk about capping interest 10 of student income and the scans of things in which help in the short term. But longterm we have got to make changes to make sure our government is efficient as possible and we cut out the waste and do so in a way that will stimulate our economy. One of our callers said that when we get our country in order to this will see that. Others will see that. Host massachusetts, independent line. Caller good morning. Representative, you are spouting misinformation as well. The taliban is not a terrorist organization. It is al qaeda. Also, do you remember in the 1980s with the contra and ollie north and reagan trading guns to the rebels . Those things should be said, too. You shouldnt just spout out that this is unprecedented that the president did with this soldier. Republican time a president goes to war, democratic president has to clean yourself up and then you want to blame him for how he is handling yall mess up. The country has been hurting ever since. You republicans always are trying to cut stuff and denied the people what is right for them, but you give big businesses like the banks their bailouts, oil company get their bailouts thanks,ax, caller. Guest i think we have a philosophical disagreement, but this is a policy when we first started where this has been violated and it was included and and it is not good now and it does not matter who does it. What went on just now is not right, not something we need to be doing, because in my mind and many others mind i go back to those like sam johnson. A man who suffered and you can see it in his body and face who suffered for his country, who served his country, said this is not right. This is a man who was a pow, not somebody like me who was not a pow. This is a man who is there who would have loved to have come home but he understood the process and the principal and it shouldnt be violated and this is just wrong. Host a viewer from texas on our email guest again, in the interest of what is inspected here, perspective here, we are looking at the total budget process. Most of my democratic friends simply go to say that you are going to cut social programs. This is a total look at the budget as a whole. I said every appropriations bill, not just a single operations bill. When you start to understand that everything can be looked at not everything will be cut, not everything will be changed, not everything will be consolidated. But that is the role of government. That is the role of congress to be doing. We cannot simply sit up here and continue to do things the way they have been done. I would rather see a government that has a fiscal house in order , its deficit and debt paid down, then we can make priority. Hoices as a nation when we have 82 of the budget roughly, we have no real control over. That we have no real control over, that is a problem. I asked that they look at their own household budget. Home, itat you bring is got to come from one place. They say that is not right. That is what is happening in government. We are bringing it down to saying lets look at everything. Host because of sequestration got put into place, the approach that paul ryan took. Where do you go from there . Guest what do you mean, where do you go from there . Host as far as cost to the budget guest many times we say lets just cut x amount from the top. That is not a good approach either. Simply say that because of a process that is not working, especially over the , that is not a good way to make decisions. When they make crisis decisions they typically make the best decision they can at that point but then they look back and say here was another option. Lets go to regular order and say that stick as best we can you will never take politics out of everything lets look at ineffective and wasteful spending, and that as to what the budgetary process is already. Oing it is not an easy choice for president s on the hill but it is something for representatives on the open it is something that is got to be done. Host regina from connecticut, democrats line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Talking about a statement made earlier in his intro. He said we dont negotiate with terrorists. We are not fighting another country, we are fighting terrorists. Who do you negotiate with . I would like him to answer that question for me. Guest we are not going to negotiate with the ones we just give prisoners a way to. However you want to classify that or put it in perspective, the People Holding the hostage are the people we negotiated , basically, we gave people in return for that. I apologize, maybe i didnt understand your question completely host regina, you still there . Caller im still here. My question is, we are not fighting a country. We are fighting terrorists. They captured a soldier however it happened, i dont know. But i want to know, if we dont negotiate with the terrorists, how will we get our people back if theyre captured . Time, at this point in you bring up a great point, but at this point, as ive have said before, even in my introduction, the people we negotiate with our the folks who were holding the hostage at the time. You are very right and this is basically a different kind of warfare. Think makes it even more to a problematic situation where we have individuals or groups or splinter groups that may capture or hold an American Military or nonmilitary. What line do we draw . This is a problem we have in our country, our world right now. Who do we negotiate with . We negotiate with the ones who are holding them, and that sets a very dangerous precedent going forward. Host is there a better way to get him back . Guest at this point, i am not sure. The question what was said even earlier by the representative we got something for that. Well, what did we get . Our sergeant back and that is a good thing in the sense that he is coming home and no longer captured. But what does it entail for later on . What other groups are saying well, lets get some more out of guantanamo, lets get some more out of another country. Why concern is that in the specific timeframe with this specific individual who they are saying was a lifethreatening condition, is that the standard we now use . Capturedor someone is and in lifethreatening conditions, we negotiate with them . Is that the standard we set . If it is, that sets an interesting agenda for those who may want to take the military prison hostage. Military prison hostage. Host representative doug collins, republican from georgia. Neck stop his next up is callie, republican from texas. Caller i want to rebut what one of the people said about the wrongicans doing all the and bailing out companies and stuff. That was the democrats and the president that did this. Thed to know government is not listening to the people. How do the people go about teaching the president ourselves because nobody else is listening to us . Kelly tothink frustration out there in general. Unwieldiness its and size of programs and inability to control his budget, control what it does, has left a situation where people are frustrated, because it is so far from the way as i said before , moms and dads who get up every morning, who only want the best for themselves, their families, that is the message that washington needs to be sending, that we are hearing from you, we understand that you are frustrated and were are doing something about that to work together. If we cant come together on things as simple as duplicate of them ineffective programs, where duplicative, ineffective programs, where are we . What are we doing so that we can speak to a country that is in desperate need of leadership . Host a viewer from twitter asks guest a lot of them are already online. A lot of these programs have been highlighted. Things the kinds of when i first came to congress, being a freshman, i went to oversight hearings and we would hear about duplicative i will go straight to one that is uniform spending in the military. Each branch designing their own acus. The millions of dollars that are taken for a specific uniform especially some, if you end up in the end, they look similar. Why are we spending hundreds of millions of dollars to do that . That is something that could be consolidated and it is just not. When people call in and sadly say that this is something that mean republicans want to cut, we need to look at it as a whole. We have to have a conversation that says we know we are out of control, we know that the bigbudget needs to be reined in, and when you get your house in order, they can have confidence in what the government is supposed to be doing. Host indiana in the democrats line. Caller what i want to know is, the Republican Party had control of congress and the white house when their tax policies they change the tax laws were companies outsource their jobs and send them overseas and did not have to pay any income tax so they brought the money back and they left of money overseas and have not brought it back. The president of the chamber of commerce nationally said on the website that there is much upside to off shoring jobs. Now, that is revenue that is not coming in. If you are not bringing in revenue to support programs, you have got a cut spending. If theve that would help laws change back to the way it would haveand they to pay income tax. A lot of corporations are not paying any. 2012, paid my taxes for it shows what was out laaid, theon veterans, 3 of budget went to veterans benefits. We are not spending too much on veterans. That needs to be increased, but i think corporations should pay their fair share, too. Thank you. Guest i appreciate the call. The issue here is not, as ive said before, especially on veterans, which he ended with it is not an issue of the money being spent. It is is the money being spent wisely . Or are recently getting into a program where we are giving bonuses to administrators for cooking the books . Those are the things that lose confidence in the face of the American People, especially servicemen and women who are civilly trying to get the care that they need. When they understand that their wait times an appointment times are being rigged, if you would, for the benefit of administrators who dont have contact with patients, that is a problem. Those who have contact with my office and the district in gainesville, when they talk to our constituents folks and get help, list of them say they get good help, the help that they need when they can get it. It goes back to a set statement of the fact that the system they have to call a congressmans office to get the help that they need. That is the biggest problem for me as i look at it, as we go forward in this discussion on Veterans Administration are we going to make structural changes to bring the system to a standard in which we think outside the box and get the veterans the help they need and dont think that in the and, maze of paperwork, that they have to call their congressmans office to get help . Host what do you think of the president s commitment to a timetable of a pullout of troops in afghanistan . Guest the concern i have is looking at it from a way that is drawn out in a way that provides a stable environment to leave, unlike what we have in iraq right now, which this past weekend was terrible violence, and if we do it properly and have our process of removing our troops i would love to see all of our troops come home, but do so in an orderly and timely fashion. Im skeptical of giving a timeline because if i was looking at it from another on this date they are going to be gone, i will just wait for that day. Host is there any more we can do after 10 years . Guest i think at this point we are drawing down and that is the appropriate response. Host arkansas, robert on our democrats line. Caller i want to ask the representative one question. Ing george bushs time during george bushs time, where was the Republican Party . Every time he got on national tv, web its a massive structure, 9 11, saddam hussein. And then george w. Bush said this is the man who tried to kill my daddy. Checked on him the way they did as president here come we never wouldve gone to war with iraq on a light between him and on between him and dick cheney and all these kids would not have been killed in iraq based on a lie. Also, concerned about the jobs in the United States if the Republican Party would try just one time to help dismantle us out of this, help this man pull us out of this, the debt we was in, we would be doing a lot better today. From day one they said they would not do anything that would help this man, not going to do anything that would help the American People. Guest well, i think robert and i have i was in congress when george bush was president i was not income is when george bush was president. Interesting correlation that i would firmly disagree with. I may disagree with this president but that does not mean i am against the people. When the comment was made that im assuming he is speaking of our president if we just help the president we are doubling the American People were helping the American People i think we have to get away from this idea that if you dont do what i like you are against the American People. We have to look at our role in congress and that is to help the American People. We may have differences in how we get there, but if you dont sickly lineup and support, you are against the American People i think that is a wrong statement. Host independent in florida. Caller he began with exactly what i was going to say. It would appear that now it is more if you stand with me or you dont stand with me it appears there is no genuine concern for our country also it for our country. It is just do you stand with me or that person . Do you think that you can make a difference for the people, not just the a part of this Party Bashing that seems to go on . Ourave genuine concerns in country that should be attended to and they are not even considered. Someone does bring up a genuine concern about our soldiers who are in harms way, they would be ve of our president. I dont understand the disconnect there. , if hesident no longer ever has, represents this country, and i dont understand why we dont see this. It is almost as if aliens could land from another planet and set up in the United States and we might notice them for 15 minutes but then we would go back to they set upg while their space. Do you think, sir, that there is absolutely no common sense whatsoever even being considered, regardless of what side is making a decision . Common sense is out the window now. Can you, sir, bring common sense back to the government . Guest i appreciate that. What we have got to understand is we have got to look at what makes sense to the American People. You asked the question, do i believe we can make a difference . Ive said this before i dont leave my wife and three kids back in georgia to come up here to think i cannot make it difference. If i didnt think i could make a difference, i would have never run for congress. I believe we can make a difference, but we have to take an honest perspective and look at what we are doing coming from congress and from congress erspective, beatty Article One Congress that the founders intended. And have the Administration Carry out the will of congress. I believe it can be done. Im the one that gets off the plane and when i look to the right, i still smile because this is still the greatest country in the world. And i look at that, in spite of our differences and everything we lose that if perspective, we lose the perspective of why we are here, and as long as i continue to have that perspective i believe we can continue to get something done is if we dont believe we can get anything done and may change, i am looking at my three kids and im saying that i am not trying to make a difference and theyour life rankings ive not seen yet, their lives can be better. Host an attorney, senior pastor, and own a small business. When it came to the redundant programs, what first drew your attention . What spurred you on . Report,eeing the gao the waste, but he goes back to my state legislator days, when we looked at the budget there, and simply working between the i hadt and saying some reports from our budget folks these can be done on a better way. Money,re looking to save we have other priorities to use this money in, whether it be educational whatever it may be, why cant we consolidate here or be able to say that this something we can do . That is where it came to me. Host new york, democrats line. Caller yes. A very important question, beginning with president reagan. Things started to change in terms of corporations. There was a very big issue about corporate welfare, and when i say corporate welfare, corporate welfare means that they have been given money throughout the years, before president obama , taxhen got into office dollars, which is corporate welfare. As the individual who called from india i mean, indiana talking about outsourcing, they made their wealth off tax dollars, the American People, and taking those jobs so that they can make more profit and the overseas and not paying their fair share of taxes. We have an Economic Situation where people dont have jobs, people are losing their homes, people are hungry. Thinking about cutting social programs which are going to help do not have their jobs anymore, who are moving things, continue the same corporate large corporations not paying their ,air share, how does that work how is that helping the American People . It probably i think was more of a statement than a question in that regard. But it seems that we go back again, when you hear cut, and it seems from my friends from the democratic perspective, the first thing they think of as we are cutting social programs. The 2 examples i mentioned have nothing to do with social programs. When you have got to do is take the whole philosophy of government we have got to do tax reform. Government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. She called it corporate welfare, i called cronyism, whatever. Those are the tens of things that should be common sense. My grandmother told me that common sense is in common anymore. Think we can bring it back there is common sense on what is right and how does it affect longterm. We have got to get out of washington, d. C. And this cycle and the beltway, what crisis do we deal with next. We have got to start looking longterm. Host georgia, republican line. Caller yes, what i would like to know is why the governor of in yourf georgia opinion as well has refused medicaid so that 600,000 georgians can have Free Health Care. I know it is because he hates obama and i know that it is all political, but tell me, how can you will do that how can you all do that . Guest am i do understand that was the republican line . Did inhat governor deal georgia by not expanding medicaid was basically because of the budgetary situation in georgia and the cost that it would incur on the georgia budget, which is already tight, already under strain. It was just a burden that we could not bear auction fiscally without causing Severe Damage to other programs in georgia. Again, it goes back again, the decision, what caller said come he did it because he hated the president. That is to mee part of our problem in our country toda. He pasted, by his own admission, on a fiscal reason. It, by his own omission am on a fiscal reason, not because he hated an individual. So that they can get Free Health Care it is not free, no matter who provides it. To say that they can get Free Health Care is a misnomer. Every Health Care Program from the government is paid out of. Ind and your pocket it is not free and we should not lie to the American People about that. It is not free. Host how did it georgia treat healthcare . Did it open up an Exchange Guest it did not come under the federal exchange programs. Host marlene, columbus, ohio, democrats line. You are the last call. Marlene, go ahead, please. Caller i would like to know i want an honest answer from you the amount of money that we spend on each prisoner in gitmo, do you equate that with taking expenses of your oversight . Too much money to pay on each prisoner . I appreciate the call. Ive not tried to be dishonest in any of my comments. Theink we have to deal with prisoners at gitmo and sign a longterm solution on that. Those are things and questions that need to be handled and done by both parties. We need to understand what we are going to do with of those prisoners at guantanamo. Possibly using them as pawns or but simply using them as hits in a tradeoff is not the way to do that. It is a good estimate answered but what she is alluding to is the wrong choice. Host your bill on redundant programs, what stage is it in . Guest we are bringing in cosponsors and looking forward to a hearing at some point. Host representative doug collins of georgia, thanks. Guest thank you so much, glad to be here. Hear from senator Bernie Sanders, independent senator from vermont, as he joins us to talk about his legislation to address the v. A. System. First, an update from cspan radio. Nato is acknowledging five american Service Members were killed in an apparent friendly fire incident in northern afghanistan. I nato stamen says the soldiers were involved in a security operation and had come into contact with enemy forces. For the second time this week there has been an attack on the airport in karachi pakistan. Attacked a Training Facility at the airport, less than 2 days after the siege by 10 taliban gunmen killed 26 people. Some cia employees say that the agency does not do enough to punish misconduct like harassment, going to a posting that sharpened to a posting on the spy agency according to a posting on the spy agencys internal network. Finally, among the Major Business and economic events expected today, the commerce wholesale releases trade inventories for april and the Labor Department issues its thert on job openings and Labor Turnover survey for april. Some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. For over 35 years, cspan brings Public Affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in a room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings, and conferences, and offering complete gavel to gavel coverage of the u. S. House, all as a Public Service of private industry. We are cspan, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service by the local cable or satellite provider. Hd, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter. Washington journal continues. Host joining us now, senator Bernie Sanders, independent from vermont. The morning. Guest good morning. Host your assessment of the ig report that came out yesterday. What do you think of numbers when it comes to wait times and the like . Totally unacceptable, people dropped off the system and people waiting endless amount of time, completely unacceptable. There are 2 major issues it seems to me, pedro. We have got to make sure every veteran in this country has quality care within a reasonable period of time. Second, clearly with people falsifying data and pretending people were getting in and of reasonable time and they werent, those people have got to be punished. Also around the country, what we have seen in my state, for example, 98 of the veterans got an appointment within one month, which probably holds up as well or maybe better than the private sector. Some parts of the country pretty good, some totally unacceptable. Host for the problems that are there, what are the root causes . Guest you have a couple of causes. Our goal established by the a a couple years ago of saying that everybody is quite a common within 14 days and get an appointment everybody is going to come in within 14 days and get an appointment. In phoenix and many other parts of this country, we simply do not have the doctors and the nurses and other medical providers that we need. My understanding is that in phoenix, for example, we need hundreds of new staff if we are going to take care of veterans a proper way with quality care. Host is this a money issue going forward, or are there other things involved . Guest i think it is 2 things. It is a management issue. Clearly, what has happened in terms of people doctoring books is unacceptable. That is a management issue. On the other hand, you can of the best management in the world and if you have, as you do at the v. A. , 2 million new veterans in the last 4 5 years and you dont have the doctors or nurses, you will not have quality care the way we should be doing. And the legislation that we just itroduced, senator mccain and , addresses both issues. It says that the secretary should have the ability to get rid of incompetent or worse, dishonest employees very come up very quickly, but it also understands where there are parts of the country where we dont have the doctors and nurses that we need and provides funding to make that happen. You get to a point where senator mccain and you were working on this legislation . Guest good question. I think the answer is that most members of the senate and the congress understand that people who put their lives on the line to defend our country have got to be protected. Basisthink on that historically there has been bipartisan activity for veterans also recently, unfortunately, it hasnt been, but i think senator mccain and i understand that there are problems that have to be honest addressed quickly. Pedro, i hope we have the bill on the floor very, very shortly, and i hope we can get it done in a bipartisan way. Bill thatyou have the you wanted or were there more things you are looking for that did not make it . Guest there are more yes. There are areas ive been chairman of the Veterans Committee for about a year and a half. If theres anything i have learned, it it is that the cost of war is much, much greater than most people appreciate. When you lose 6700 men in iraq and afghanistan, we understand that. When 200,000 people come home with posttraumatic brain injury and stress disorder, we understand that. But the whole transition from the military, from active duty, being in the national guard, to going back to civilian life and reuniting with your family, reuniting with your kids, going out to get a job that you may have lost, there is a lot of stuff there that we have got to address. There are issues out there that this bill does not address. Women, whoks, mostly have been taking care of their spouses since vietnam. 50 years. They need some help. They dont have the time it is a 20 47 job. Job. 7 imagine being in an apartment with somebody who has lost legs or has posttraumatic stress disorder. We have men and women who have lost their ability to have kids in iraq and afghanistan spinal injury, other injuries. I think we should help them and their families. Dental care, huge issue. Thatveterans have teeth are rotting and the v. A. Cannot take care of them. This bill takes care of some of what needs to be done. Host did senator mccain have to give things up as well . Guest yeah. Host such as . Guest talk to senator mccain. The it would allow secretary to details,far as those what support do you see from the senate and how is it different from the house taking a look at this as well . Guest the house is focused primarily on management issues. And they had a bill, which was a Pretty Simple bill, that said that the secretary has the power to fire immediately. I objected to that because i think that you do not want to put the v. A. In a position of being politicized. You have a new president coming in and you have these highlevel executives, new president , the secretary, getting rid of 400 people today, and then four years later a new president comes in. You politicize the v. A. The v. A. Is a Health Program anyone the best doctors and nurses, progressives or conservatives, democrats or republicans. That is what you are paying them, to be health care providers. The other thing is that without any due process at all, somebody could be fired because of their race or Sexual Orientation or whatnot. They need to process. We put in an expedited process where they have a short period of appeal. ,st the Washington Post their editorial wraps it up by saying this may leave shortterm pressures on the pa system and basically does nothing to change the system itself. Guest i dont think that is accurate, but let me also say this and maybe veterans want to call and. I can tell you, pedro i talk to a lot of veterans, and what we have seen in recent months in terms of falsifying data is a total outrage and people of god be punished. If you talk to veterans in vermont and all over the country, if you talk to their organizations the american legion, dfw, and all the other organizations, what they will tell you is that once people are in the va, the quality of care is good. The quality of care is good. To my mind, what we want to do is provide better management, but we also want to make sure that every facility in this country has the staff the need to provide quality care that our vets deserve. Implicit in the problems you are seeing right now is because of ofq, because afghanistan, an aging oblation of korean and vietnam vets aging published of korea and vietnam vets, we have seen 2 Million People, to the system and that is overburdened the system, and in parts of the country we dont have the resources to deal with that. Host senator sanders, our guest, talking about his proposal for the v. A. Host here is lisa from shreveport, louisiana, on our republican line for senator sanders. Caller good morning. Im fromrs, shreveport, louisiana, i am a republican, and i admire you so much. You tell it like it is. I appreciate your honesty and i would like for you to run for president. This is the first time i have ever really voted for a democrat but i think you are very, very smart and i think you care about people and i want somebody new in there. Guest well, lisa, thank you very much. Way,an independent, by the not a democrat or republican. But thank you very much for your thoughts. Virginia,stock, independent line. Caller hello. Good morning, senator sanders. S would like to mirror lisa comments and go a bit further. Im an independent, also, ninth generation virginian. 26year navy veteran, disabled. One of my uncles is up 100 disabled that from the korean war. I spent 22 years with various agencies. My comment is brief. One, my father got excellent care at the naval hospital, and i know that your bill extends. Fforts to our veterans some qualify, some may not. Your bill covers some more. And dod facilities may service the needs of some of our veterans. Aunt, the wife of the yesterdayorean vet one ofed away she was certainlyts money has been put into that facility and other dod facilities. But i agree with you that there has been much lipservice over numerous administrations as to how we have to better served our vets, and unfortunately, many of the loudest voices, including your cosponsor, senator mccain, who himself obviously has had Honorable Service and gone through much trauma, but where is, as you said, put your money where your mouth is . Guest well, thank you very much. Thank you for your service and your Family Service to the country. Look, i think you hit the nail on the head. War is terrible, terrible things to people. Vermont, we had a meeting with veterans in korea and they still wake up in the middle of the night with terrible night nurse about what makes. Skills nightmares about what they experienced. And ifads to bad things we send people off to war and some people never return, wounded in body and spirit, if you send people off to war, lets not talk about not having the money to take care of those people. If you have money to send them off, you have to understand it is the cost of war. Years later we will be taking care of some of those veterans and if we cant do that, we are not much of a country. Host who is responsible for monitoring efficiency at va facilities . Guest the v. A. Itself, and you have the committee and house and the senate. Host as far as changes going forward, will there be changes with wait times and how these things are considered . Guest absolutely. V. A. Has already done away with its 14date standard. It could not be reached. But what we do want to do is have the staff to make sure that veterans, 20 days or 18 days from whatever it may be. In my state, 90 of people are ting care within a month 98 of people are getting care with a month, which is pretty good. Nost what were your thoughts o cosgrove becoming a candidate . Guest if you look at all the attention and difficulties involved with the v. A. , i hope we have somebody who has the courage to come in to that cauldron, where there is so much attention and criticism. Look forward to working with the president to make sure we have the very best person host courage in terms of what . Guest look, it is a very controversial area. Hospitalle running someplace walked into here and you have 2 congressional committees, everybody in the takes the media, and it somebody was a whole lot of knowledge, a lot of concern for veterans in this country and is willing to take the heat to make the changes that we need. Host is there an ideal candidate you would say should take a position . Tvst if i mentioned them on they would no longer be the ideal candidate but i have mentioned some names to the president. Host not you want to share with our audience . Tom in kentucky. Morning, gentlemen. I am a marine corps veteran, i served in camp lejeune in the 1950s. The water there has been contaminated since the early 1940s, and it was kept secret by the marine corps until the 1980s. For years they have been study after study after study. Now they are using a law with the 10 year statute of limitations in these type cases. I am dying from als and i want to ask the commerce of the United States to do something for we marines veterans who are dying every day, and it is been 30 years now, and any help that you could give us, sir, i would appreciate it. Thank you very much. Guest thank you very much. This is an issue that we have discussed in the committee and i absolutely agree with you. Evelyn from vermont. Guest i gave the graduation speech at the high school. Senator. Ts wonderful, thank you. My son is retired veteran and he served in the iraq and afghanistan conflict. When he got out, we bounced around a little bit. If i paid a little bit more attention i wouldve realized what was going on. Spouse,re a military all you care about is your husband coming home. He got a job right out of the gate, started working three months, and then one day he came walking in house and said, honey, im sorry, i let you down. I lost my job today. I asked him what happened. My husband is a hardworking man. Also veterans are. Almost all veterans are. He was a mechanic and he was he said it is like i was in there. Wasnt there. I knew immediately and the next morning i took them to the va hospital at White River Junction and i told the nurse there him you will see my husband today. They did. We decided to retire here in vermont, which wasnt really our first choice. We did not know where we were going to retire, to be honest. But we are here now. I want to know, with all these people, all the problems in the ive been married to a service man my entire life, all i have known. But one thing that is consistent that ive seen is the lack of care. S, it is not just the administration. People get so comfortable in their jobs because there is no recourse. Oh, i can sit here i walk in and the guy is Drinking Coffee when he should be working. Host thank you. Guest first of all, i am glad your husband got good care at the White River Junction v. A. Facility. It is an excellent facility. The new director there does a great job. Most veterans would concur. We have 300,000 in coal use in the v. A. Every onegests that of them is doing all they showed. Many of those employees our veterans themselves. Many of them see what they do as not just a 9 00 to 5 00 job. They go above the call of duty and you get really Exceptional Care sometimes. There are instances where people , as in every area of life, are not doing what they should be. Viewers talk about patient advocates. Is there a need for improvement as far as the gobetween between the patient and the doctor . Guest may be. Many Service Organizations play that role. In vermont, the vfw and dav and vietnam vets do play that role. What, this fellow did not get the care he needed. Around the country may directors meeting with the organizations. They should be open to new ideas. If youreewer asks bill and senator mccains bill will be voted on before Congress Goes on break. Guest i hope so. The staff has been working hard on this thing. We managed to get to the floor last night. Senator reid wants to push it as quickly as possible so i hope we will have a vote on this this week. Host from jupiter, florida, this is operate. Aubrey on our democrat line. Caller a while back, i read that there was a petition going around vermont for a singlepayer system. Mynow this about veterans, dad died in a veteran hospital in boston from cancer. Six kids in the family. If he had not had the v. A. , i dont know what he would have done, he was sick for a long time. My brother was a vietnam veteran so we had world war ii and vietnam. The singlepayer thing, i am hoping the aca is someday going to lead to this. There is a lot of redundancy in our system. To the canadian system, we are paying for medical care in so many places it. We can use people say there is not enough money but there is plenty. Guest your point is well taken. As a nation, we end up spending almost twice as much as other countries. Have 40 Million People who have no Health Insurance and many more who have high deductibles and high copayments. Lets be frank, the function of America Health care is not to provide care to all, it is for Insurance Companies and Drug Companies to make a lot of money. That creates a very, very bureaucratic and wasteful system. Am a strong advocate of singlepayer program and i hope vermont leads the nation. I believe from the bottom of my heart that health care is a right. Whether you are rich or poor, everybody in our country should have access to Quality Health care. I believe we should do that without spending any more than we are spending. Host rockville, maryland, independent. Caller good morning. Senator, you have nothing to be crowded out. Your role with the v. A. Is a scandal, people are dying and miserable. What i want to talk about in particular are the union work place rules. I heard very casually that the union does not allow surgeries after 3 00 p. M. How wasteful, how expensive. Guest where did you hear that . Caller cspan. Guest i do not believe it is true. Caller do you get money from the unions, do they help you get reelected . What is your relationship to the union . We know about workplace rules. In tradey believe union do i believe in trade unions, yes. Nor,ise more small do individual contributions than anybody in the senate. My average contribution is 47. I do not get money from the Koch Brothers. Money comes of my from independent people who are making modest contributions. Do i receive contributions from unions, i do . I am a union supporter. To suggest that problems with the v. A. Have to do with the fact that they have a union is wildly inaccurate. Host they expressed concerns about the inability to fire. Guest that is not a union, that is senior executives. The issue was if you have a doctor or a phd, they have the highest level. Do you want somebody to come in and say you are fired without any right of appeal at all . What happens if you are fired for racial reasons or because your boss was sexually harassing you. What about political reasons . Should you have appeal, you showed. In our legislation, you have a week to appeal and the board makes a decision in three weeks. Host how hard is it to let go of a manager in the v. A. System . Guest right now, it is not just the v. A. There are appeal processes which can drag on month after month after month. I think that is a problem and that is what we address. Ohio,from kathleen in democrats line. Caller hi. Senator sanders, you are a treasure. Cspan is a treasure. If americans want to know what the government is doing, they can watch cspan. Senator sanders, i have spent the last six years dealing with my father, a world war ii veteran. Lateare both in their 80s, my father just passed away. To the v. A. In dayton, ohio 46 years. 46 years. Theyg that process, determine my father suffered from ptsd. We try to get him a private room because he was having trouble with roommates. My father came, in on a stretcher and we were in there with the doctor. We were trying to get him tested for ptsd the doctor was polite and asked my father name, age, date of birth. Ofdid not offer him any kind testing for ptsd. So my father could say yes or no to any of those questions. The day after, i asked for the records with my mother. We found that the doctor had falsified the records and said he had offered my father four different tests. They did not happen. I reported this to the v. A. I do not contact my congressperson to make sure that the doctor suffered repercussions for that. I want to talk about reporting the falsification of records. I wanted to ask you, while i was at the v. A. , i talked to lots of young veterans. Many of the veterans sitting there with one arm or one like. And other veterans who were suffering from ptsd. They were sharing that when they would talk to a counselor, it was very difficult to talk to counselors who had not served in the military. Can we make sure that counselors are and i have another question. Host we have other people on the line. Guest very good points. It is why the v. A. It is unique and why we have to strengthen it. A lot of veterans feel comfortable when they walk into a v. A. And they feel comfortable because there are other veterans there and they have experiences that are different than many people in the civilian population. Second, it is likely that many veterans want to talk to people who know where they are coming from emotionally and who have been through the same experience. I think the v. A. Tries very hard to bring in counselors and psychologists who have that service. I will tell you that in vermont, we initiated a program, an Outreach Program that is the people who do the outreach are all veterans. They are knocking on doors and talking to fellow veterans. That works well because they have a shared experience. They both know what they are talking about. I agree, everything being equal you want to get folks to do counseling who know what veterans have gone through. Took just to show you what place at the hearing, you can watch the whole thing on cspan. Org. Attorney general Richard Griffin talking about issues at the v. A. [video clip] today, we have ongoing or v. A. Uled work at 69 medical facilities and have identified instances of manipulation of v. A. Data that distort the legitimacy of reported waiting times. When sufficient, credible evidence is identified supporting a potential violation we areinal law, coordinating our efforts with the department of justice. To date has substantiated serious conditions at the fetus Healthcare System at the phoenix Healthcare System. We identified 1400 vete a primaryid not have Health Care Appointment but were listed on the electronic waitlist. We identified an additional 1700 for ans who were waiting primary care appointment but were not on the electronic waitlist. Host he spoke about working with the doj when it comes to criminal matters. Should criminal investigations be put forward . Guest absolutely, i applaud mr. Griffin as the Inspector General for the vi in my view, he has moved very seriously. I think he is doing a really good job. Host surely, alabama, democrats line. Caller good morning pedro and senator sanders. I have a quick point about staffing. My father was a world war ii veteran and had excellent care at the Iowa Veterans hospital. My husband served for 28 years and might two sons were in the. Ilitary i applied for Nursing School and i received a grant from the. Overnment for every year they paid for it, i had to work in a psychiatric. Ospital maybe you could do Something Like that for doctors and nurses. Guest that is an excellent idea. When pedro asked me earlier about provisions in the bill that i wanted, that was one of them. M thate a progra does that. It says to medical School People in medical and Nursing School, if you are prepared to serve an underserved areas of the country, we will forgive your debt or give you a scholarship. It is working very well. For whatever reason, the v. A. Is not aligned with that program and i went to see them become aligned. We can pay off the debt of people working within the v. A. , that makes a lot of sense. Host negotiations between you and senator mccain, where they cordial . Where their arguments . Give us a sense of what is going on . Guest we both have our personalities i will say that. At the end of the day, we are happy with what we accomplish. Host senator Bernie Sanders of vermont talking about efforts of the v. A. And other issues. Jeff from west virginia, hello. Pedro and senator sanders. I have been a supporter of yours ever since i saw you in a documentary about big corporations on link tv. You are one of the few guys in i Politics Today you has a real backbone. Guest thank you. Veteran. Am an army our country was not at war with anyone when i was in. Ideaabout the about some type of a v. A. Medical id card. You can take that to any hospital or any doctor, any dentists, anywhere you wanted to go. You can use dvi as a recordkeeping place, now that everything is online, the doctor will log onto the v. A. Website and get your medical records. They can be transferred and use the v. A. As a medical Record Holding type facility. Cut checks to the various hospitals and doctors. Guest i do not agree in this sense, you talked about dental care. One of the things we are fighting for, in the midst of a dental crisis in this country where millions of people cannot find affordable dental care, the v. A. Does not provide dental care. Privatizationthe of the v. A. And making it more of an insurance company. That is not a good idea. What the v. A. Does do is spend more than 5 billion a year in contracting to private providers with it all have the capability or cannot provide the service inhouse. It ends up becoming a much more thing. Ve given the needs of veterans, whether it is ptsd or dramatic n injury or amputation ptsd or traumatic brain injury or amputation. I believe in strengthening the v. A. That is an important part of the legislation we worked on. Has thise nation headline. Bernie sanders could be the candidate we have been waiting for. How the responses that . Guest this country is facing thatserious problems it was in the great depression. We have more of a gap in equality than any other country. The top 1 hold a huge amount of wealth and many people have nothing. There are huge issues. Up in thethat i wake morning wanting to be president , you have got to be crazy to want to be president. Collapse of, the the middleclass and the incredible power that the billionaire class has over the economy and over our political life as a result of citizens united, the Koch Brothers and other billionaires can buy elections. That is frightening. We talk about people standing up and fighting to defend democracy. People love god to talk about these issues. People love to talk about these issues. The working class is disappearing. I give some thought, i am not staying up every night. Host where are you in the decisionmaking process . Guest host we have guest we have an election, that is my main concern. Host Hillary Clinton being asked about her president ial ambitions. What do you think . Guest i have none Hillary Clinton for a number of years. A very smart and experienced person. If i do this i would not be running against Hillary Clinton, i respect her. I would be running to raise issues that have to be raised and defend a workingclass that is being decimated. Host michelle from illinois on our independent line. Caller good morning, senator sanders. I went to commend you and cspan. This is a Wonderful Program and i watch you carefully. We need 534 other senators and congressmen such as yourself to fight for veterans. I do advocacy work. My question is how can we incorporate into all of our facilities the actual facilities that are part of the ig report to get an individual who can work with those facilities from the bottom to the top . Areing at the bottom, these Civil Service individuals who work at these facilities. Many of whom have not served. Get somebody who can work with our patients as they walk in the door to the v. A. Facilities and work with them every step of the way to get the numbers and good metrics to make the system work nationwide. What happens in health care in general and certainly in the v. A. , people get lost in the shuffle filling out forms and they set waiting for too long. V. A. A more personal institution is exactly right. When people come in, they should be welcomed and helped with paperwork, that should be minimized. The goal should be to get them into caring providers who will see them in a reasonable period of time. Host will you allow amendments to be attached to your bill . St what i do not support this is a veterans bill. I do not support the idea of somebody coming in talking about abortion or gay rights or the Keystone Pipeline or anything else. If that are amendments that are ideas to improve this bill to provide Better Health care to our veterans, yes by all means. I do not want to see the amendment process being used to sabotage this legislation. Oft senator Bernie Sanders vermont, thank you. We will do a set of open font leading up until 10 00, call on one of four lines. 202 5853881 for republicans. 202 5853880 four democrats. 202 5853882 for independents. Make your thoughts known on twitter, cspanwj. Send us emails at journal cspan. Org. First, a news update from cspan radio. Hillary clinton seeking to refine comments she made about sheg dead broke when left the white house. The former secretary of state id morning america appreciate how hard life is for many americans. Saying that she and former president clinton left the white house in 2001 roughly 12 million in debt, largely from legal bills. Have continued to be blessed in the last 14 years. Airsnother interview that today, Hillary Clinton said shortly after sarah palin was nominated as the 2008 republican the president ial candidate, Obama Campaign proposed that mrs. Clinton go on the attack against sarah palin. Hillary clinton telling nbc in an interview that airs today that shed refused to do that. Finally, federal regulators have granted the first permission for nemmercial drug flights dro flights over land. The faa has given approval to bp and unmanned manufacturers aerovironment to caonduct Aerial Surveys in alaska. Took place onht sunday. Some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. Religion as a powerful identity forming mechanism. Human society, figuring out who is us and who is them. It was my grip and who is the outgroup . Religion answers that easily. Likeu pray like me, eat me, go to the same church as i do, you are us. If not, you are them. You can see how that kind of usthem mindset can easily to extremism, marginalization. Religion might be the most identityform of formation but just as powerful as violence. How do you know who is us and who is down . If you are fighting alongside me, you are us. If you are fighting against me, you are them. Far from religion and violence being these two things at odds that have nothing to do with each other, they have throughout history been much more aligned than we would like. Religious scholar rose azlan indepth guest, three hours starting at noon eastern sunday, july 6. August 3, republican president ial candidate ron paul. September 7, the former chair of the u. S. Commission on civil mary frances berry. On our online book club, the forgotten man, a new history of the great depression. When others to discuss the book in our chat room at booktv. Org. Readers. N for serious washington journal continues. Host opened phones, here are the numbers. 202 5853881 for republicans. 202 5853880 four democrats. 202 5853882 for independents. Our social media, rich us on twitter cspanwj. Send this email at journal cspan. Org. The New York Times takes a look at the taliban. Assault signals talibans reach and resilience. Pass again,rring in a far reach beyond the tribal afghan border. Infiltrating the countrys biggest airport. Zbekdiscovery that iu were among the attackers underscores how the taliban can draw on an international network. That is from the New York Times. There are other stories as well. The members on your screen to give us a call on these opened the endntil 10 00 when of this program happens. Go to the front pages of financial times, reaction of communities from the president s effort on climate change. U. S. States waiting up carbon trade to me climate targets set by the administration. Just two of the stories. This will be opened phones, the numbers are on the screen. If you have called in the last 30 days, hold off from doing so it. Y, we appreciate make sure to meet your television as well. Denver, North Carolina this is rhonda on our independent line. Hello. Caller hi. , i continueondering to hear about the Koch Brothers funding republicans. Are there not billionaires that also from the democrats . Host tom stier is a man, especially on time and change issues, brought up again and again. The kochll i hear is brothers. There are other billionaires that continue to donate to the democrats. I would like to hear both ways. Host that is rhonda. Here is douglas from jersey city, new jersey. Democrats line. Caller hello. Why isam calling about it taking Speaker John Boehner so long to bring Unemployment Insurance to the house . Host i do not have a direct answer, tell us your concerns. Caller i have been unemployed since the 30th of june of last year. I am 58 years old, i cannot find no work. They are about to cut my Public Service, that is my gas and electric. I am falling behind in everything. I have worked all my life. Able to get 26 weeks, that was it. What do you do in the meantime and how do you manage . Caller i had to go to public assistance. That is not enough. Any day now, i just got a shutoff notice from my Public Service. Host douglas from jersey city. Some comments on open phones. We have been talking about the hearing that took place on capitol hill. Taking a look at the v. A. Issues. You might want to watch it, i invite you to go to cspan. Org. We have archived it online. Just to give you a sense of some of the exchanges that took place, Tim Huelskamp and others were talking and engaging with the guests. Heres a little bit of the exchanges that took place. [video clip] i do not believe you. I tend to associate myself with mrs. Kirkpatrick, who says the system needs to be revamped and restructured. There is no accountability. There is complacency. I like to associate myself with mr. Ruiz, who recommended prosecution. And with you, mr. Griffin, for your comments about people not getting fired for doing their job. We need leadership at the daf hopefully we will get back. Some leadership that will make people responsible and fire people that are not getting the job done. This culture of not being able to get the job done and it doesnt matter, it has got to stop. I appreciate your comments, you kind of threw them in there, that people need to get fired. We need to make that happen. Despite all the criticism, we need to have a system that the management at the top can fire the people that are not doing their job and to listen to people on the ground who have comments. About the talks simplest thing every private practice does, they call the patients to confirm they are coming to the appointment. The v. A. Have not figured that out yet . It is impossible to believe that that occurs. Host republican representative dan benishek of michigan. Some exchanges that took place yesterday on the hearing on the v. A. Go to our website, cspan. Org, and watch it. A story out of the Washington Post, insurgents seize control in most of the Northern Iraq including the government headquarters. A demonstration of the threat racksy extremists to a stability. Fighters with the Islamic State partaq and syria over rim of the city after police fled posts. In some instances, discarding their uniforms. That is from the Washington Post. Cheryl, Virginia Beach on our independent line. Caller hi. I wanted to call. Number one, i was trying to get while of senator sanders he was still on. I love him. As far as the woman making her amment about he does not have reason to be proud, she is completely wrong. He does have a back on and he is one of the most honest senators we have. Thenother note, as far as congressman you had on earlier considering the sergeant that was just traded for some Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Was a prisonerhe of war. He had been with them for five years. I am from a military family. My daughter is a disabled vet, is a disabled vet. He was exposed to agent orange and has never been compensated for it. Back, this man even if it meant negotiating. Guantanamo bay prisoners that we have who have been cleared of no crime and we still have them in their. Keeping that plays open seems more harmful as far as our Homeland Security is concerned. If they are so worried about terrorists, we need to get that plays close. It has been way too long. Congress needs to do something about that. That is all i have got the save. I know it scares the daylights out of me, continuing to have Guantanamo Bay open. We are pulling troops out of afghanistan. Hopefully, they will all be out. We have got to do something. Missouri,louis, democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Representative doug collins, i tried to get in. That said when he got to washington he was surprised to find out that the budget was not handled like someone handles the budget at their kitchen table. Does he really believe that . Inean he should not be congress. You can look at your city council, york county council, your state government. Whose budgets are not run like your house budget. Like thatay things and then he has got people out there saying yeah right. Come on, he cannot be serious. Bernie sanders i love Bernie Sanders. He is working to fix the problem. The republicans just want to find blame. The v. A. Has had problems for years. Even when their legislation proposed in recent times was going to improve the v. A. , republicans have voted against that time and time again. Hefar as sergeant bergdahl, was never declared a deserter by the v. A. Promoted twice while in captivity. In negotiations with president obama, when he was negotiating to get this man released, there was little to no discussion about this man being a deserter. Focus was on the fact that he is a military service person. Host nelson from misery. Across the u. S. , five states having primaries maine, nevada, north dakota, South Carolina, and virginia. Theres a map showing the state primaries. Here to talk about whats going on in virginia, Jeff Schapiro with Richmond Times dispatch. Good morning. Whats the most important race to watch . Guest there are two primaries. One in the eighth district, jim moran is retiring from a democratic district. Don buyer, former Lieutenant Governor. The ambassador to switzerland and lecture list to win. Ed that primary is tantamount to election because of the construction in the district. Candidate republican but he is not expected to get much traction. Down interstate 95 to the richmond area in the seventh district, this is the district of eric cantor, the republican majority leader Bostock Eric Cantor has represented the the seventh since 2000. He is clearly interested in the speakership. It is that ambition that has clearly gotten eric cantor and the seventh district, primarily with two partiers and libertarians, whose numbers are abundant in the rural expanse of the seventh district. Where there are not a lot of votes but there is a good deal of anger and frustration with washington. Host who is eric cantors challenger . , ast david brat professor at rent of making college in a professor at Randolph Macon college in ashland, virginia. His association with tim kaine is what eric cantor has seized on for purposes of television advertising. Eric cantor is attacking brat as a liberal college professor. Who consented to proposals for higher taxes during the kaine governorship. All of this has been forcefully campaign. The brat eric cantor with over 2 million in his campaign treasury, which he has spent more than one Million Dollars of that, has a much bigger and louder megaphone than brat. This will be a thinly attended primary. Cantory give the opposition an opportunity to di ng up the majority leader. Host when it goes back to jim moran, tell us a little bit about his challenger. He was the Lieutenant Governor in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1997 but remained active in National Democratic politics, first as a fundraiser for howard dean and then as a fundraiser for barack obama. Man of some means in the washington area. Er is synonymous with automobiles, principally volvulus. The family has a considerable fortune that has supported mr. Beyers political ambitions. Host the picture is associated candidatesory about conceder willingness to to obamas efforts. Consider the eighth district in northern virginia, this is in the shadow of washington, d. C. , it is drawn to favor the most liberal democrat. It is little downside to expressing loyalty to the president. A number of ranking obama aides and political operatives have publicly endorsed mr. Beyer. Host the Virginia Senate, some changes there, especially efforts to expand medicaid. Guest this is not a game for the faint of heart. The Virginia Senate is divided 2020 with a democratic Lieutenant Governor casting the tiebreaking vote, giving democrats working control of the senate. That ended yesterday, monday, with a surprise resignation of phillip puckett, a democrat from. He Far Southwest now the republicans have a numerical majority and they had new majoritycent, to force a final break in this. Ontinuing budget impasse on thursday, the legislature, now a republican dominated supposed to is begin acting on a budget before the june 30 deadline to enact one. Have virginia past that date, we would have entered tear it cant be that we would have entered terra incognita. Host Jeff Schapiro with the Richmond Times dispatch. South dakota, republican line. Caller i would like to know how the u. S. People are going to handle are these Young Children coming across from guatemala and south america we have so many help. En who need what is going on . How can parents send their children across the country without any adult supervision . Letting them loose in arizona . Not loose, but who is going to take care of all from . They are little kids, babies and teenagers. Care ofoing to take them and where they going after host from florida, democrats line. Am a 31 year retiree military enlisted and commissioned servicemen. I wanted to talk to senator sanders. In governmentge that it is easier to do something and asked for forgiveness than to get permission. That is what is operating here with the v. A. The second thing, i have not heard any, or read of any condemning the people that did this. Secretarystration, has been everybody condemned except the people that did it. Somebody died, they were cooking the books. Nobody has actually condemned and said what they did was bad, saying that what you did was bad. That is my comment. Host noor from minneapolis, minnesota, independent. Caller thank you for taking my call, my name is noor. Mention thatto according to the actions of the these people, the republicans. Even the supreme court, they do not think this is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. For instance, they picked a president for us. Who turned out to be his whole administration was lies. Another thing, the democrats should be glad that the ku klux klan part of their party left and went to the republicans. Klan party ofhe the Republican Party. I wanted to mention, just briefly, three subjects. If benghazi. There was an ejection there was an american egyption of the there was an american coptic christian religion who made a terrible video about the islamic people. An account of the islamic religion. The egyptians heard about that. As a result, they began to riot. Next to egypt. As a result, they heard about this and went looking for americans. , directly orr indirectly, contributed to his own murder. They asked him if he would need help and he he said no, these people love me and i love them. Oft this is from out nevada, written out of washington but concerning harry reid. The most famous resident is moving out of the desert town where he grew up and was born 74 years ago. He and his wife are looking for a place to live in las vegas. Austin from maryland, democrats line. Caller good morning. I am a 27 year military veteran. I agree 100 with the president for the reasons about army soldiers. Now, i do not even consider the taliban as a terrorist organization. We went into afghanistan to take down the taliban. I agreed with that at the time. Bush, i respect all president s, and cheney and rumsfeld, they decided hey, lets take down the government. That was a legitimate government of afghanistan at the time. Whether we like what they did or not. They were the legitimate government of afghanistan. So we went and took them down. With our paramilitary forces. And then all of a sudden we start calling them terrorists. You think they wanted to get back in office . We cannot a bunch of them and we brought them over here. And we are still calling them terrorists. Host a story out of an interview with abc news. Former secretary of state Hillary Clintons interview on a lot of topics, including benghazi. You saw the headline, heres what she had to say. [video clip] what i do not appreciate is politicizing this at the expense dead americans. With 258 americans were killed in beirut in two separate urned,s, people mor decisions were made, strengthen the embassy. Is that another reason not to run . Is more of a reason to run. I do not believe our great country should be played minor league ball. We ought to be in the majors. Part from aas a diversion from the hard work that congress should be doing with problems facing our country in the world. Host donna from texas, hello. Caller hello. Ok. A dead horse, i wanted to talk about the v. A. For a minute. Wasartner of 11 years dragged on and on and on for months and months with a spot on his leg. Made appointments, canceling appointments, we drove all the way out there, over 200 miles. Ultimately, after about six months, they put them in the hospital to amputate his lower leg. Dr. As the admitting insisting that he was an alcoholic. Detoxat he was going to and whatnot. I had no reason my partner had not had a drink in eight months. The doctor gave him a shot for withdrawals for alcoholism and it threw him into a coma and ki lled him. It is just a shame. It is just not right. Texas. Hat is donna from we talked about virginia as far as what is going on when it comes to primary day. Other primaries across the u. S. Five total. Here to help us understand what is going on elsewhere, scott bland of national journal. Hello. Guest how are you . Virginia,tarted with going from there, what is the most interesting state . What are the most interesting states to watch . Guest South Carolina is definitely going to be attracting some attention, in his primaryis looking for another term. This is one of the races that people expected maybe at the beginning of the last year to turn into a potential matchup between different wings of the Republican Party, a real slowdown. It has turned out to be something much less exciting. Graham has been doing exceedingly well. He was about 40 points ahead of in the moster recent independent poll. It looks like a pretty fair bet that he will avoid going into a theff and he will win nomination outright. He has run a very Aggressive Campaign and has kind of undone some of the more tea party anger against him. Outsidew much assistance were the challengers getting and how much money and effort did senator graham put up . Guest the challengers got almost no outside money. Senator graham put up quite a money. His own he raised nearly 6. 5 million in the last year and spent even more than that. He had to could say put in a lot of effort, this is part of the emerging playbook for republican senators avoiding primary challenges when they look wonderful. Just blow the roof off with their spending. Use that advantage of incumbency to great effect. Iny were not able to do that mississippi, fundraising was pretty low. Lindsey graham really raised and spent a lot of money and put awaylf in a position to do with these challenges. Host that leaves us main, nevada, and north dakota. Where would you go from there . Guest maine and nevada are very. Nteresting in maine, you have congressman eau in northern maine. That is between democratic senators. It seems like one of them has really been able to hit her opponent on all sorts of major progressive issues. , stuffriage, abortion like that. The environment. Even in one of the more socially moderate districts that democrats hold in the house, it is pointed to the power of viewpoints in democratic primaries. Reallyt, nevada is a interesting primary. There is not too much going on on the congressional side, a lot of people are looking at the Lieutenant Governors race. Harry reid and governor brian eachval are involved, backing a candidate for the tenet governor. There is a proxy battle brewing. While that is attracting most of the attention of the national media, it is very interesting to watch sandoval did not pick a side in the republican primary. It is not only to help protect the office, it is part of his efforts to wrench control of the state party back to him. Host north dakota . Guest there is not all that much going on. There is a freshman republican congressman expected to be renominated easily add expected to then cruise along. , do any of bland these primaries indicate anything about future makeups of particularly the senate . Guest not so much the senate. Some of the house primaries are interesting. On the senate side, things are looking pretty stable. Nationalt bland, journal hotline editorinchief. Thank you. Guest thank you. Host david, florida, democrats line. Caller i just came from the v. A. Clinic. I have been going since 1982, i am a 50 serviceconnected veteran. One of the things that is not coming up in this discussion about the v. A. Is moving. Almost every person i know that is a veteran is on disability and trying to get disability and looking for disability. As a 50 serviceconnected veteran, i have never had to wait. I call for an appointment, i get an appointment and see the doctor, things work out great. Just this morning, im just leaving the v. A. Clinic now. They have got people and theyre having there talk about had carpal tunnel syndrome 30 years ago in the military. They are out there. There is a little building where people sit out there and smoke until their names are called. Overweight, pounds they are chainsmoking and then billing and theyre claiming they all have agent orange from vietnam. It is amazing. It is somewhat of a twotier system. The people who are in there that have legitimate Service Connected disabilities are getting excellent treatment. , like been in this thing i said since 1982, over 30 years. It has been incredible. The people that are sitting in there and taking up a lot of time. They are saying i have got carpal tunnel, my knees the to be replaced because i was in the military 30 years ago. Host jennifer from oregon, republican line. Good morning. John from lake charles, louisiana. Caller hello, good morning. First time caller. I must say, as an independent, you all let the left, the democrats ran on a mountain on. But if it is from the right, you cut them off. You had your own agenda, it appears to me. Just like this guy from the v. A. V. A. Butim praise the you did not let the lady explain herself very well. She had a legitimate comments. She was on the other side. I am 100 disabled. I go and i see the people at the v. A. Waiting for care and i cry. These men put their lives on the line and yet get treated like secondclass citizens. We take care of civilians but we do not take care of the veterans. Vietnam and these people have been secondtier citizens. Host michael from oklahoma, democrats line. Are you there yo . Caller yes. Problem. Look at the you can go back over 20 years and look at how the republicans the cut and cut and cut v. A. Benefits. They had a chance recently to v. A. Up 27 to the for the to open up 27 new hospitals for the v. A. They are saying we cannot pay for because of the deficit. Tanks thee Building Army says we do not need. Building 30,000 new tanks just to keep these places open when do isey have to modernize and build Something Else for the military that the military is looking for. The same thing with the marine corps. Now are building planes that they started working with in the 80s. The future ofon the highway trust fund. A proposal by senators reid and rand paul. Saying they are for a onetime tax holiday. It would bring 20 billion through 2015 as companies rush to bring money home. By the end of 2070 in, it would cost the government money by costing rates. By 2024, a simple tax holiday costthe one tried would 96 million. Almost time to go to the house of representatives. Suzanne, democrats line, new mexico. Caller good morning, i have wanted to ask senator sanders. Ava veteran from that was unable to get benefits and the early 2000s. He said there was a story that v. A. Executives were buying up mansions and land and using the money that came from the government to invest themselves. Do you know anything about that . Host before we go, one more call. Eileen from tennessee. The house about come in. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to talk about the situation in russia. I am familiar because my grandparents were born in kiev. We just give them 25 million. We wrote a check. What are the American People going to be a priority with the government we have . It puts the president and the white house, not the people. I voted for al gore, he won. Host we will have to leave it at that. The house of representatives comes in for its session. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] the speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers room, washington, d. C. , june 10, 2014. Hereby appoint the honorable reed j. Ribble to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, john a. Boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 7, 2014, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. The chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip but in to five minutes, no event shall debate continue beyond 11 50 a. M. The chair recognizes the gentleman from connecticut, mr. Himes, for five minutes. Mr. Himes thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, im moved to rise today because this house, starting yesterday and continuing into today, is considering a complicated bill called the transportation housing and urban development and related agencies appropriations act. Mr. Speaker, thats a complicated set of words. This is where we fund the nations transportation infrastructure, and i rise today, mr. Speaker, because this bill is not just bad policy but it is a danger to the safety and Economic Health of my constituents and to all americans. What is it that were talking about here . We are talking about the money that the Congress Appropriates to build and improve our highways, our bridges and our railways. I wonder who in this house doesnt have bridges or highways or railways in their district. This is the boom. Its the arteries in which we build our Economic Growth and which the jobs that we spend so much time talking about are created. Without good highways, without the ability to move people and goods and services around this country, we are nothing. We will not be serious about creating jobs. Now, lets take a little tour on how were doing on our highways and our bridges and our railways. Just last friday i got caught on a metro north train in my district because a 100yearold bill bridge got stuck. Thousands of my constituents sitting on trains and in train stations at grand station, unable to get home. There have been derailments on this railline, including some that have been fatal. Just shy of 20 years ago, i live about a mile upstream i95, the single artery in the northeast, fell down, killing a bunch of people and creating huge economic havoc. This is true nationally. The stats are out there. The amount of investment that we need to make in this country to be competitive with the chinese, with europeans, were spending far more on the bones of the economy. Its huge numbers. What are we doing about it . What are we doing about it right now in this house . Well, the bill i mentioned proposes to spend 70 billion on transportation. That sounds like a big number. A lot of zeros. Lets put that into context. Couple weeks ago this house decided to spend about 600 billion on our military, which is fine. Incredible military that we have. Add in security and intelligence, you get a number of about 700 billion that this house chose to spend on our national security. Thats 10 times what were now choosing to spend on transportation. We are spending 10 times protecting this nation than we are on actually building this nation and providing the economic infrastructure that will create the Economic Growth and jobs that we all say we need. 70 billion. One example by the way, thats 1 less than we spent last year and 20 billion less than the president s request. Amtrak now, i understand that many of my colleagues dont rely on amtrak. I rely on it every single week. And an awful lot of my colleagues do. I see them on the way down here. It is reduced in funding by 15 , half of what the president thinks is necessary in his budget. Who thinks this is a good idea, mr. Speaker . Who thinks that its a good idea where we are supposedly serious about creating jobs to underinvest in the arteries and the bone and the senue that allows us to grow jobs in this country . Thats not a good idea, and yet were fending off amendments to cut investment even more in our transportation infrastructure. Are there people in this country who dont sit in traffic wasting time they could be spending with their family, taking away their focus from their businesses theyd like to grow . There arent many of them, and yet this house chooses to reduce the investment in the country that we supposedly hold dear. Im tired of it, mr. Speaker. Im tired of my constituents having their personalized damage, having their safety put at risk, having their businesses jeopardized because we have not invested enough in our infrastructure. Is there a state out there, by the way, that has an extra billion or two dollars lying around . Is there a state out there that has an extra 5 billion in their budget to step in where the federal government should be active . I dont think so. I certainly dont hear that. And yet this house is about to reduce the spending. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Himes mr. Speaker, this cannot stand, and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from North Carolina, ms. Foxx, for five minutes. Ms. Foxx thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week it was my great pleasure to participate in a groundbreaking, at a plant expassion at the g. E. Manufacturing facility in West Jefferson, North Carolina. The expansion will allow g. E. To produce more of the companys incredibly popular leap engine which will power next generation aircraft from around the globe. The 80,000 square foot factory expansion will provide for additional machining capacity and represents a 65 Million Investment by g. E. In West Jefferson. The jet engine is proven to be incredibly popular. With commitments or orders for more than 6,000 engines to date. This is especially remarkable because the leap does not Enter Service until 2016. Once it does Enter Service it will power planes such as the boeing 737 max and the airbus a320 neo. G. E. Is familiar with the fact that high quality workers can be found in North Carolina, since the company has 1,300 employees in West Jefferson, durham and nashville. The current expansion is expected to add 105 new jobs over the next 2 1 2 years. Im exceptionally pleased that g. E. Is partnering with Wilkes Community college to give local workers the skills needed to compete for the new jobs this expansion will bring to West Jefferson. This innovative Worker Education Program will allow current and perspective employees to learn in a hands on environment with stateoftheart machinery. Mr. Speaker, this is just the type of programs we need to close the skills gap and give hardworking americans the opportunity to compete for the four million jobs that are available now. This expansion will demonstrate yet again that American Manufacturing and American Workers can compete in a global economy. Theres no more fulfilling aspects of our jobs here than to be invited to be present for the announcement of more jobs in our districts. Everyone in the area is excited for the community of West Jefferson, and i look forward to a very successful future for the Innovative Education Partnership between g. E. And Wilkes Community college. Thanks to g. E. For making this investment and thanks to the employees at g. E. West jefferson for your great effort and commitment to excellence. Mr. Speaker, last week i was energized and inspired by the opportunity to tour the Dr Pepper Bottling Company in West Jefferson, North Carolina. This plant has been recognized for the high quality of its products and was a recipient of the 2013 Caleb Brayden president s award. This award is named after North Carolina native and pepsi founder caleb bradam. This year only 19 plants across the country received the award out of hundreds of bottlers across the country. According to the West Jefferson post, quote, the Company Received the award for the production of its 12 ounce glass bottle sodas which are bottled in downtown West Jefferson. West jefferson dr pepper glass bottle products are wildly popular among soda enthusiasts, enquode. The Dr Pepper Bottling Company has been making drinks since 1940 when it was founded. Among the employees are three generations of the family whose patriarch began the company. I wish the company and all of its employees many more years of success. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Hompson, for five minutes. Mr. Thompson thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to honor and congratulate Sergeant Luke porter of state college, pennsylvania. Serving within the United States armys fourth battalion, third infantry regiment, better known as the old guard. On june 9, Sergeant Porter was formally inducted into the ultraselective unit which stands as a sent national for the tomb of the unknown soldiers. Only 622 other individuals have been selected to share in Sergeant Porters distinct honor and responsibility. He will now become number 623. The sent nationals of the tom of the unknown soldiers tomb of the unknown soldiers stand guard 365 days a year, squetching heat, rain, blizzards. Sergeant porter could not have made it this far without the life lessons and guidance of his parents and family, which were present during the ceremony and during his first changing of the guard. Congratulations, Sergeant Porter, on this outstanding distinction. You have joined a highly motivated regiment that proudly serves all american soldiers who are known but to god. May you remain resolute in your convictions and serves as an example of the countless others selflessly serving in our armed forces. Thank you, mr. Speaker, and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from texas, ms. Jackson lee, for five minutes. Ms. Jackson lee thank you very much, mr. Speaker. This past weekend i had the privilege of joining the president of the United States and the official delegation to the 70th commemoration of dday. It was not a normal experience of an international could he del, the opportunity to codel, the opportunity to interact with our colleagues in europe. But it was a testament and a testimony to the continuing strength, determination and value of the United States of america. It was a moving experience. It was an experience based in reality. For as we listened to the recounting of the deliberations of general montgomery, general eisenhower, Franklin Delano roosevelt, winston churchill, and many others, as we listened to the stories of young men who many of them signed up at the age of 15 or 16, 17, wanting to serve their country, not knowing where they would go. Now in their late 80s and early 90s, as some would say, the sweetest men youve ever seen, showing pictures, telling stories and shedding a tear about the comrades that were left on omaha beach or sword beach. Soldiers that didnt speak the same language but understood the words of liberation and freedom. And i would only say that i hope this challenges this body calls the house of representatives that they didnt wear armor of republicans or green party or tea party or independent party or democratic party. They wore the armor of an american. What wonderful words of general eisenhower, when he said he needed the unity, the strength of all, or the sadness of those who said as they plowed their way onto the beach, seasick and nauseous as they were, losing tons of equipment and unfortunately at times coming and falling over bodies of bleeding soldiers, losing some 10,000 in the first day. Where is the america of that time, prepared to take up comprehensive Immigration Reform or prepared to take up serious gun regulations to stop this unending violence in america, even the shooting of two Law Enforcement officers, what has america come to . Where is its greatness . Where is the reality that we are the generation that has inherited those young mens life and women, who left their homes sacrificing . Where is the placement of the Voting Rights act reauthorization that is a bipartisan bill, why havent we passed that to show that liberty is real in the United States of america . I had moments where tears fell of joy and the privilege of talking to and meeting these men, watching them receive the honor from the french people and as we walked through the streets, even today, the people in france were saying thank you with a degree of emotion that knew they would not be free, they would not be liberated, they would not be france for it had not been for those boys who left the soil of this United States or those who game from guadeloupe, martin eek, who came and trained at martinique who came and trained or my uncle who fought in tunis and ethiopia and others who left my widowed grandmother, three sons, left behind, all of us have been touched. And so it is important even as we look to the status of sergeant bendall that we find in our hearts to look at it in a spirit of fairness, not grandstanding, not partisan politics, but finding out the facts and realizing that america is greater than divisive politics when you look to the greatest generation of which we have not been given the life of their life, their sacrifice. After he walked amongst the white crosses that represent the blood shed by america. Not to conquer europe, but to free europe. That is our mantra and that is what we should do for the American People. Not to conquer them but to free them from violence, from inconsistent policies, and certainly from the inability to vote. I pay tribute to the 70th commemoration of the brilliance of america and the spirit of her youth, and i tell everyone that that brilliance and that spirit is not lost upon us today. I am happy because i know that embedded in all of those who walked the streets of this nation and called themselves an american have that same spirit and we can make a difference in this country for all of those who need us. With that, mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina, mr. Jones, for five minutes. Mr. Jones mr. Speaker, thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, along with other members of congress, i attended a classified briefing on the swap for our soldier and five taliban leaders. I wont go into that, but i did have an opportunity to make a comment to the presenters. I made a comment regarding my concern about the bilateral strategy a strategic agreement known as b. S. A. And the fact that we continue to spend money in afghanistan that we borrow from foreign nations. Mr. Speaker, beside me today i have a cartoon that was created by mr. Milt prigee and it makes a point very well. Its got uncle sam pointing out saying, i want you. And then the language beside it says, to understand that if you cant afford to take care of your veterans, you cant afford to go to war. Well, that makes my point very well because we seem to find all the money we need for afghanistan to waste, and we know that waste, fraud, and abuse is worse today than its ever been in the 12 years we have been in afghanistan. I would like to quote from the Daily Journal online, the title is, i quote, no end for afghanistans war on the u. S. Taxpayers. No end for afghanistans war on the u. S. Taxpayers. And i want to read two paragraphs from this online article. John sotco, the Inspector General for afghan reconstruction known as cigar, may have taken and i quonet this, quote this, may have taken uncle sam and shaken him by the lapels last month but the media missed it. I continue to quote the article. In short, afghanistan is on life support and joe citizen is its permanent i. V. From your pocketbooks uncle sam has taken 103 billion to build afghanistan so far. I still quote, by the way, that figure doesnt include the cost of war making. That is more money than we have spent on reconstruction for any one country in the history of the United States. I just heard the congressman from connecticut talking about the infrastructure of his state as well as america, and the poor shape it is in. Yet we find all the money we need for afghanistan so we can build their roads so the taliban can blow up the roads. It takes no sense. Mr. Speaker, cigar on the job since 2008 has produced 118 audits and inspection reports, and made 23 quarterly reports from congress. I have read a few of these, certainly not all. All you have to to is hear him speak or read some of the reports from his organization, and you will be disgusted as i am disgusted with the stupidity of continuing to find money for afghanistan while we cut programs right here in america. Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago i wept to Walter Reed Hospital went to Walter Reed Hospital. I knew there were two marines injured in afghanistan from my district, camp lejeune, in the Third District of North Carolina. I happened, mr. Speaker, while being there, to meet four soldiers, one a colonel from fort bragg which is not in my district but in North Carolina. All four had lost at least one leg. Mr. Speaker, then when i met this young man from louisiana, who is a marine from camp lejeune, and his father standing beside him, he lost both legs and an arm, hes 23 years of age, i looked in the eyes of the father who could not have been more than 50. I saw pain, i saw hurt, i saw worry about the future of my sons life missing two legs and an arm. Why are we still sending troops to afghanistan . Yes, we are going to cut the troops, but we are going to keep 9,000 to 10,000 there. The taliban will still go after them and try to blow off their legs and kill them. Mr. Speaker, before i close i want to quote pat buchanan who i have Great Respect for, particularly on Foreign Policy because he and i agree. This is his quote. Is it not a symptom of senility to be born from the world to defend the world. Is it to the a symptom of senility to be born from the world so we he can defend the world . Mr. Speaker, i would put one word in there to change. I would change senility to stupidity. Ill read it now. Is it not a symptom of stupidity to be born from the world so we can defend the world . Mr. Speaker, again uncle sam is saying, dont spend money overseas when you got problems here in america. And our veterans are not being adequately cared for. Mr. Speaker, its time to end the spending in afghanistan. Its time to stop spending our troops sending our troops over thereby to be killed and have their legs blown off an their arms. Mr. Speaker, before i yield back, i would like to ask god to continue to bless america and bless our men and women in uniform. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. Blumenauer, for ive minutes. Mr. Blumenauer thank you, mr. Speaker. The recent news accounts of horrific murder and rape of two young girls in india shocked the consciousness. But one of the items that was interesting is that few of the news accounts actually detailed what put those young women at risk. Julie mccarthy of npr had a story which highlighted one of the greatest human Global Health challenges that created this situation. They were indeed attacked, raped, and hung from a tree after they were caught in the field. These two young women didnt have access to a toilet. And like so many women around the world, but particularly in india, they went out into the fields at night to relieve themselves. And they went in a pair to minimize the likelihood that they would be isolated. This is offensive on so many levels. It is emblematic of violence against women, the vicious attitudes by people towards lower castes, and the complicated dynamic of castes in rural india. But it is a testimony to the need to be able to have these young women and others around the globe have access to adequate sanitation facility. Facilities so they dont have to sneak out oot night in the Early Morning to disguise their embarrassment to use a nearby field as a restaurant. As a rest room. One half of indias population uses open fields for defecation. Fewer than half of indian households have a toilet. The women and girls perform a ritual to deal with this most basic bodily function, usually in fear and trepidation. This is one more piece of evidence as to why the american for t to increase our help access to basic sanitation and Safe Drinking Water is a moral imperative as well as being critical for Global Health, security, education, and stable economic development. Globally 2. 5 billion men, women, and children do not have access to adequate sanitation. This means that there are more people on earth with a cell phone than with a toilet. Countries where open defecation is more prevalent also have the highest numbers of death for children under five. High levels of under nutrition and poverty. And huge disparatities between rich and poor. The lack of adequate sanitation is a huge drag on economies at a national level. The Global Economic losses associated with inadequate water supply and sanitation are estimated to be over a quarter trillion dollars every year. According to world bank, for india alone, inadequate sanitation costs the country equivalent of 6. 4 of their gross domestic product, over 50 billion. Not only do women have to plan their day around performing the most basic bodily function, they are also more likely to be the family members tasked with collecting drinking water. Often dirty and polluted, for their families. In fact, in just one day its estimated that more than 152 million hours of a women and girls time is consumed for the most basic of human needs, collecting water often from distant polluted sources. This is time not spent working on income generating jobs, caring for family members, or securing an education. The average distance for many of these women and girls is 10 miles a day. Like a woman search for safe place to relief herself, particularly when they must walk alone, leaves her vulnerable to rape and other havent attacks. The most acutely impacted however are children. Over 1,00 children die every day from diarrhea caused from dirty water and poor sanitation. The lack of access to Safe Drinking Water means a child dies needlessly every second. These are heartbreaking stories and jarring facts, but there are solutions. Thats why im hopeful that well be able to work with our frnds in the House Foreign Affairs committee friends in the House Foreign Affairs committee to move the bipartisan bill im working with judge poe, the water for the world act, h. R. 2901, to make american efforts more effective to deal with preventing the needless loss of a childs life every minute and threat to young women and girls. If we need it needed more evidence, then consider the lengthy the speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Blumenauer than these two rape victims in india. How can we not do all we can . The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. Davis, for five minutes. Mr. Davis thank you, mr. Speaker. For the first time in 19 years i was unable to wake up and wish my wife shannon a happy anniversary in person. So, mr. Speaker, i stand here on the floor of the house today to do just that. Shannon, you are not only my best friend, my rock, and my biggest supporter, you are the reason why i have this privilege of standing here in this Great Institution to serve the 13th district of illinois. Its what you you have shown us as not only its what you have shown us as not only a nurse, a mother, and my best friend, its a strength that only comes from being you. A years ago you stared battlefield of colon cancer in front of you. You stared down that battlefield and you beat it. And what you may not know is that strength that you showed at that time is a strength thats an inspiration to not only me but to our three children and to so many of us that know you. So, shannon today, on our 19th anniversary, i stand here today to wish you the happiest of happy anniversaries and i hope to be home soon this weekend to celebrate in person with you. Mr. Speaker, i would be remiss if i didnt say i love you, shannon, before i yielded back. Thank you. Pursuant to clause 12a of this hear is one expected to start at 10 00 this morning. Is about to get under way in a couple of minutes. Its being delayed a bit because of members over in the senate. We expect to get this under way in a moment live here on cspan we are live on capitol hill awaiting testimony from richard cordray. He will be giving his agency a semiannual report. When the house returns here at noon eastern. Members will be taking up a couple of bills. Including a bill dealing with veterans healthcare. Theyll continue to work on spending authorization for the 2015 transportation and housing program. Live coverage again of the house will start at noon eastern here on cspan. Also today, very quickly, there are primary elections taking place in maine, virginia, North Carolina, nevada. Lindsey graham had been facing gop opponents. Voting during those primary elections will finish probably around 8 00 and 7 00 in some states. Well have coverage of some of those Election Results here this evening. I call this hearing to order. Cordray, welcome back to the committee. Today well continue our regular over sight. In three years since the cfpb opened its dares, it has had a notable impact and nearly every aspect of the consumers experience was the Financial System from Student Loans, credit cards, mortgages financial education, and credit reports. The bureau has conducted extensive outreach to both industry and consumers and has proven itself to be a regular regulator. Today, the about our has obtained nearly 900 million of refunds and over 375,000 consumer complaints. Many of the cfpbs most significant actions relate to mortgage lending. For example, the about our recently finalized its mortgage disclosure to improve closing and provide key long terms to cost and consumer and clear understandable. While the Consumer Experience at the mortgage table is an important aspect of mortgage lending, the ability of consumers to access affordable mortgage credit is critical. The cfpbs rules to strengthen the mortgage standards including the q. M. Went into effect this past january. Director cordray look forward to hearing how these rules and mortgage lending particularly for small lenders in rural areas such as south dakota. While i support mortgage standards, its important to ensure since director cordray testified last november, the bureau finalized its rule to supervise student loan services. Who service over 47 million borrowers accounts. For the first time the nation second Largest Consumer debt market will have supervision im encouraged by this act. Im interested to hear from director cordray about actions the bureau plans to take to address this growing problem. According to Federal Reserve data released last friday, Consumer Credit growth jumped to fastest rate in three years. Whereas Credit Card Debt rising on a peace since 2001. We need a cfpb that guards against abusive practices and consumers are able to make responsible Financial Decisions while having very access to affordable credit. I applaud the cfpbs work so far and look forward to they are testimony. Thank you mr. Chairman. Today we welcome back director cordray to discuss the most recent semiannual report of the Consumer Financial protection about our. The cfpb has laid out a broad and ambitious rule making agenda that will affect Consumer Financial products and services. As a cfpb proceeds with rules targeting short term and small dollar credit, over draft protection, auto financing, Mortgage Servicing and settlement and arbitration, it must fully understand how these rules will affect the cost and availability of credit for consumers. The cfpb must also commit to take a balanced approach and to performing a thorough qualitative and quantitative cost benefit analysis of each rule. Im concerned many of the cfpbs proposals and action will continue to push mainstream protection products. As the director aware another issue great concern to me is cfpbs big Data Collection. Such as how many consumer accounts the cfpb is monitoring and how it intends to use the personal information it collects. Unfortunately, my calls for transparency have been met with ramped up efforts by the bureau. This april, i learned that the federal Housing Finance agency and cfpb will expand the jointly run nationally run database to include the persons religion, Social Security number and major life events. This information is undoubtedly intrusive. Adding concern is the admission by f. H. F. A. s project manager for the data bait that the information on it would be easy to reverse engineer. More over the they publicly indicated that borrowers do not have the opportunity or right to opt out of the database. Finally, the recently reports about employment discrimination at the cfpb are deeply troubling. Two cfpb commissioned independent external reports and testimony from a whistleblower highlights the cfpbs failure of employment rating. Today, we will need to discuss how this occurred, why it took months for cfpb to acknowledge and act upon these independent reports and what additional steps the cfpb is taking to increase transparency and accountability . Senator menendez. Thank you mr. Chairman and welcome director cordray the cfpb earlier this year released a report on Consumer Protection issues involving Student Loans and as i look at hard working middle class New Jerseyans trying to get ahead, i feel they fall further behind. A knew class of College Graduates preparing to enter the workforce but the question is at what cost to them and their family and at what cost something should happen to them before the loan is paid off. The experience of the family of christopher illustrates how challenge these issues can be. In 2004 christopher was a student at rutgers when he suffered severe traumatic brain injury. During this time of hardship, christophers parents was shocked to learn that his Student Loan Debt continued. Not the injury nor christophers death was enough to stop the debt from blowing. Leaving families like christopher to find out that theyre on the hook for the full cost of the loan no matter what. We need to take a step back and think about how we approach the student loan. Before they collect their like christopher, something happens to them the burden in many cases will fall to family members. Many of whom who are already struggling to might ends meet. According to Federal Reserve bank of new york, the share of 25yearold student debt continue to rise and total Outstanding Balance exceeds 1. 1 trillion. The burden for families are real and the need for Consumer Protection i believe is critical. Thats why today mr. Chairman with senators brown and booker im interested in introducing christophers ball. A bill that will require student loan providers to clearly communicate to borrowers and cosigners what their obligations will be in the incidents of death. The bill can save families years of potential hardship. I plan to introduce separate legislations. In the situation where the lender ultimating forgave his student loan death after six years. His parents were hit with a large tax bill on what is deemed to be income. Second its something unfortunate happen to the cosigners of Student Loan Debt, disability or bankruptcy, some borrowers gone into default. I look forward to discussing this issue with you further today director cordray and look forward to being able to make a change so that death and disability isnt a continuing challenge to families. Mr. Chairman i want to say briefly i will not be able to stay until the time when i will be up to ask questions. Im concerned about a process that is under way by which the cfpb is collecting a vast amount of information about credit card usage. Its a Staggering Amount of data about usage of credit cards i have a series of questions and look forward for a follow up answer. Senator brown. I will be less than 30 seconds. Its to echo i wanted to echo the words of senator menendez. Im hopeful director cordray that you can help us address those issues. Anybody else . Like to remind my colleagues that the record will be open for additional statements and added material. Mr. Richard cordray is the director of the Consumer Financial protection about our. Director cordray, you may begin your testimony. Thank you chairman johnson ranking members of the committee for inviting me to testify again today about the latest semiannual report of the Consumer Financial protection bureau. The bureau as you know is the nations First Federal agency with the focus of protecting consumers in the financial marketplace. Financial products like mortgage, credit cards and Student Loans involve some of the most important transactions in peoples lives. Congress created the bureau to stand on the side of consumers. Those consumers are your constituents. Since we opened our doors, weve been focused on making Consumer Financial markets work better for the American People. My testimony today focuses on the bureaus fifth semiannual report to congress and the president which describes the bureaus effort to achieve that vital mission. Through fair rules, consistent over sight, appropriate enforcement of the law, the bureau is helping to restore american familys trust and Consumer Financial markets, protecting americans from improper conduct. Through our Enforcement Actions to date, weve made efforts to refund more than 3. 8 billion directly to consumers who fell victim to Consumer Protection laws. We fined wrongdoers more than 141 million, all which is has gone into civil penalty funds. In the fall of 2013, for the first time we took action in conjunction with multiple state attorney general against on layne loan online service. We took action for payday we took action against an auto lender for discriminatory loan prices. In addition to this public enforcement action, recent nonpublic supervised reaction and selfreported violations, have resulted in more than 70 million being remediated to over 775,000 consumers. In january as the chairman noted, mortgage rules that the bureau issued to doddfrank act took effect. We issued another rule mandated by the doddfrank act. To simplify this process, for individuals and industry alike which we call our project. We also issued an advanced notice proposed rule making on debt collection. Which is the about ours most frequent source of consumer complaints. Weve continued to provide providing consumers will online resources including the cfpb section of our website. Which i encourage you to use where we have answers for frequently asked questions. The consumer should be treated fair in the financial marketplace. They deserve a place that will facilitate the resolution to their complaints when that does not happen. To this end, the bureau strengthen its offers of consumer response. As of june 1, 2014 we have received 375,000 consumer complaints, debt collection, credit cards, mortgages, vehicle loan and payday loan and Student Loans opinion the progress weve made has been possible thank to the engagement of hundreds of thousands of american who used our communication tools, submitted complaints and told us their stories from coast to coast. Weve benefited benefited fr progress is also thanks to the extraordinary work that the about ours on employees. Dedicated Public Servants who are committed to promoting healthier and fairer consumer marketplace. In the years to come, we look forward to continuing to fulfill congresss vision of an agency of cultivating a financial marketplace. Thank you for the opportunity to appear buffer again appear before you today. I look forward to listening closely and responding to your questions today. Thank you for your testimony as we begin questions, i will ask the clerk to put five minutes on the clock. Dr. Cordray the cfpb has now been up and running for almost three years. What do you consider to be the most significant accomplishment the bureau since 2011 and looking forward, what actions can we expect either the bureau over the next three months its a broad question. First of all, the challenge of building a federal agency from scratch has been significant. Weve had some growing pains and weve been working through those. But at the same time, weve gone from zero employees to now close to 1400 employees. People who are very dedicated to protecting consumers to see theyre being treated fairly. The mortgage rules we put in place that congress is the such a high priority on, had been very significant. Thats a single biggest Consumer Financial market. The enforcement activity that weve had to ensure that institutions understand that people need to be treated fairly and money will go back to peoples pockets when theyre treated unfairly have been important. Our attempts to supervise to put programs with nonbanks to put them on the level with the banks. I think increasingly, not only are consumer response, which addresses individual complaints but also reveals the pattern of complaints buts our efforts to provide Public Information that all of you can see and share. I think it do affect the market in meaningful ways. The qm rule has been in effect since january. Would you discuss the rules impact in Mortgage Markets and home buyers . The qualified mortgage rule are ability to pay rule alternative names. Has been one of the most significant protections for the Mortgage Market to date. Its important provision to recognize the need to prevent similar financial crisis from growing out of the Mortgage Market in the future. I think its been widely acknowledged it will help to do so. I think its been a balanced rule making but its something were very attentive to and closely monitoring. If we see uncompensated consequences, we want to be ready to act. Weve been closed to National Organization of realtor the and others who are bringing us regular data to let us see how this may be affecting the markets. In the rural areas, thats an area we try to be sensitive. We had an original proposal not calibrated properly in terms of engaging what is rural. We backed that proposal off for two years while we reconsider that further. Weve been receiving a lot of comments. I think well have a proposal that will be more satisfactory to people within that two year time frame. Director cordray, the about our recently proposed changes to the q. M. Rule including a change points and fees limit, to allow lenders an opportunity to cure a loan that inadvertently exceeded the limit. Can you describe why the changes were necessary and whether you think any additional changes to the point and fees limit or q. M. Will be needed . The points and fees provisions stems from the doddfrank act. We have heard from a number of lenders about it including the concern that was stated i think Mortgage Bankers in particular but a number of people brought it to us. Although theres a point and fees capped under the rule and people should be able to go right up to the edge of that cap and making mortgages in the market. We like them and expect them to do so. There were some concern if they got close to the cap, they would have to stay away and create a gray area. A right to cure would be a way to ease that concern. We took that input to heart and we have proposed a provision to take account of that that weve now had comment on overwhelming supported by lenders. There are some differences about what time frame it should cover. I think its a reflection of our willingness to listen to lenders about whats actually happening in the markets how we can ease access to credit without lessening Consumer Protection. Thank you mr. Chairman and director cordray. I want to start out with regard to the big Data Collection issue. There are so many questions to ask on that, im just going to get into this briefly. I want to remind you, we need to get further answers from the agency with regard to literally the scope of and the content of the big data project thats under way to collect credit card information. I just want to clarify one fact in these questions. That is its my understanding that the agencys goal is to collect the credit card transaction information on 90 of the credit card accounts in the United States. Is that correct . I believe thats correct. Although i wouldnt put it that way. Were not trying to collect information on individual credit card accounts. Were trying to collect information that will give us the pattern of credit card activity in the marketplace so that we can protect consumers against the kind of abuses that led to the card act. Were also trying to collect information so that we can accomplish our task that the congress set for us, reporting to you every year and how its affecting the marketplace